Breaking barriers on the green

“We were founded to serve young people from marginalized communities initially,” Program Coordinator and Registrar of First Tee’s D.C. chapter Dolly Davis says.

In 2011, Wake-Robin became a nonprofit dedicated to providing scholarships to junior members solicited through their partnership with First Tee. “We have an annual golf tournament to raise money for scholarships for minority females who are high school students looking to go to college and take something in Golf Management or something related,” Tyner says.

tricts and three days of state tournaments. During the 2022 season, Blair made it to the third day of states because of a rule that allows co-ed teams to have a ten point bonus to their overall team score if there is a girl on the team.

The rule was created in an effort to improve diversity within county golf. “We wanted a greater representation [of girls] at the state level,” Cliff Elgin, the County Sports Director for golf, says.

MCPS Golf is split into three divisions. Blair golf coach Louis Hoelman III explains the difference in demographics among the divisions. “The top division are the W schools, and those teams are not very diverse; it’s kids who went to country clubs. The lowest division is the most diverse, and they’re labeled probably the least experienced golfers and probably have the least opportunity to get better,” Hoelman says. Blair is in the middle division.

During Blair’s 2022–2023 golf season, junior Angela Shen was the sole female player on the co-ed team of ten. Shen, who took her first golf lesson in fifth grade with First Tee, notes the importance of encouraging girls to play. “I think if you mostly encouraged boys, you would miss a lot of the talent pool or potential,” Shen says.

MCPS golf has weekly county tournaments that progress to dis-

During the 2022 season, there were 50 girls playing in MCPS Golf, more than any other school district in Maryland. There were 240 students in MCPS Golf in total. Hoelman aims to have a more gender diverse team in the 2023 season.

“A goal of mine being a second year coach is to get way more girls involved in golf,” he says.

From her own experience outside of MCPS Golf, Shen observes a lack of diversity on local courses.

“When playing in public golf courses… it’s like mostly old white men,” Shen says.

Despite this image of golf, many Black women are breaking barri- ers professionally. Oneda Castillo became the third Black woman to achieve Class A status as a Ladies Professional Golf Association teaching and club professional in 2003. Similar to many founders of Wake-Robin, Castillo first found golf through her husband at age 30.

“I look at it as a pivotal day for me in my life. There was Oneda before golf, and that day began the chapter of Oneda in golf,” Castillo says in an interview with Silver Chips. Castillo faced multiple instances of discrimination early on in her career, including one incident while taking a golf lesson with a male teacher. “I couldn’t find someone like me to give me lessons. I had to go take lessons from guys… [Once, my teacher] stopped and said, ‘I don’t know why you’re trying so hard. You’re never going to be a professional,’” Castillo says.

Today, Castillo is part of multiple initiatives to encourage young girls to become involved with golf. She has served as the Director of Golf for the Women in Golf Foundation for 25 years in addition to her work as a global LPGA golf instructor.

Through their ongoing junior membership program, Wake-Robin also continues to fight for greater representation in golf. “I think representation matters, and we need to make sure that we get more and more of it everywhere, starting much earlier on in kids’ lives,” Dudley says.

For Dudley, encouraging this representation and being part of Wake-Robin is a way of making history. “I like to always think about us as standing on the shoulders of giants,” she says. “I feel like I’m a part of a civil rights movement.”